Ethereum Name Service

The ENS DAO constitution mandates:

“Any income generated by the ENS treasury should primarily ensure the long-term viability of ENS and fund the ongoing development and enhancement of the ENS system. Surplus funds may be allocated to other public goods within the web3 space as determined by ENS governance.”

The Endowment has been pivotal in securing the longevity of ENS. This proposal aims to utilize new funds to establish funding streams for service providers dedicated to the continuous evolution and enhancement of the ENS system.

Procedure for Implementation

Service providers interested in participating must submit their candidacy on the ENS Forum by December 1st, demonstrating their expertise and providing a plan for enhancing the ENS system. Detailed instructions will be issued following the approval of this proposal.

Candidates must stipulate their service fees in increments of US$200,000 per annum, committing to a minimum service period of 12 months. Project budgets should not exceed US$1 million annually.

A new snapshot for approval voting will be set up. Projects must obtain a minimum of 1 million ENS in approvals to proceed.

Eligible projects will be ranked by vote count. A greedy algorithm will then be applied to select the highest-voted projects, provided the cumulative budget does not exceed the preset limit.

Funding for streams will be guaranteed for a minimum of 18 months to prevent service disruptions. However, a reassessment vote will be conducted after 12 months. Although the one-year term is non-binding, and streams may be discontinued at any time by the service provider or the DAO, proper notice will be given in advance.

All outputs financed by the DAO must be released under an Open Source License permitting derivative works.

Criteria for Project Qualification

Projects may include, but are not limited to:

• Development of alternative open-source front-ends for diverse audiences or platforms.
• Maintenance of developer tools, such as SDKs, to facilitate ENS integration into various applications.
• Implementation of a referral program, complete with necessary contracts and outreach for successful execution.
• Proposals for enhancements to ENS base layer contracts for a more refined experience or to facilitate cost-effective batch transactions.
• Creation and support of improved tools for ENS names’ interoperability with decentralized storage solutions.
• Development of novel off-chain trading experiences for names or innovative NFT trading experiments to broaden ENS’s appeal.
• Exploration of untapped platforms or entirely new applications for ENS.